Will Elon Musk fund a Nikola Tesla museum?

By Elizabeth Landau, CNN

Updated 12:18 PM ET, Thu May 15, 2014

The Oatmeal, Elon Musk and a Tesla museum7 photos

The Oatmeal, Elon Musk and a Tesla museum – Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) was a Serbian-American engineer and unsung inventor who helped pioneer the use of electricity, among other achievements. A campaign is underway, aided by entrepreneur Elon Musk, to turn Tesla's last remaining laboratory into a museum.

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The Oatmeal, Elon Musk and a Tesla museum7 photos

The Oatmeal, Elon Musk and a Tesla museum – Cartoonist Matthew Inman, founder of humor website The Oatmeal, has celebrated Tesla online and in 2012 launched a crowdfunded effort to save Tesla's last remaining laboratory.

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The Oatmeal, Elon Musk and a Tesla museum7 photos

The Oatmeal, Elon Musk and a Tesla museum – Inman's online paean to Tesla praised him for inventing an alternating-current electrical system but claimed he was overshadowed by rival Thomas Edison, who received credit for inventing the light bulb. "Without question, Tesla was a genius," he wrote.

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The Oatmeal, Elon Musk and a Tesla museum – Inman's campaign raised more than $1.3 million to buy the site of Tesla's former Wardenclyffe laboratory in Shoreham, New York, on the north coast of Long Island.

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The Oatmeal, Elon Musk and a Tesla museum – Now Inman is trying to raise money to renovate the old Tesla lab and turn it into a museum. In a comic strip earlier this year, he made a plea to Elon Musk, founder of Tesla Motors, which is named for Nikola Tesla. Musk is seen here with then-California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger at a Tesla Motors event in 2008.

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The Oatmeal, Elon Musk and a Tesla museum – On Thursday, Tesla's birthday, Inman wrote that Musk, who is also CEO of private spaceflight company SpaceX, pledged $1 million to the cause.

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The Oatmeal, Elon Musk and a Tesla museum – Hours after Inman's Tesla S review and plea, Musk sent a Twitter message saying he would "would be happy to help." Thursday, Inman said he made good on the promise.

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Story highlights

Unsung inventor Nikola Tesla lived from 1856 to 1943

A campaign is underway to turn his former laboratory into a museum

Cartoonist Matthew Inman asked Elon Musk for $8 million donation

Musk tweeted that he is "happy to help"

Inventor Nikola Tesla may have died alone and broke, but he has powerful friends who want to preserve his legacy.

Cartoonist Matthew Inman, the brain behind "The Oatmeal," is one. Using his popular web comic, Inman launched an effort to turn Tesla's former laboratory in Shoreham, New York, into a museum.

Tesla, who lived from 1856 to 1943, developed the basis for AC power, among other ideas and innovations that have shaped our lives. He obtained more than 100 patents, according to the Tesla Memorial Society of New York. Inman partnered with the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe, a nonprofit group, to generate widespread interest in a museum.

"Elon Musk, if you're reading this: You owe us nothing, and you've done nothing but good things in the name of Nikola Tesla," Inman wrote in his endearing handwriting-esque typeface. "But the fact remains: Tesla Motors, a company now worth billions, is using Nikola Tesla's name and they're using his technology, and all we want in return is a little bit of help."

Inman wrote that automobiles have AC induction motors and bear the Tesla name, despite the fact that no one from Nikola Tesla's family was involved in founding the car company. According to the Tesla Memorial Society of New York, Nikola Tesla invented the AC induction motor, which he sold to Westinghouse in 1888.

"But the idea of a car company using someone else's family name without any formal connection to them is a slightly arresting notion," Inman wrote. "It would be like naming a company 'Steve Jobs Hoverbikes' 50 years from now, regardless of any ties to Apple or Jobs himself."

During the initial fundraiser for the museum, Musk donated $2,500, Inman wrote. But what the Tesla Museum would need to open, he said, is another jolt of $8 million.

Inman tweeted Tuesday "@elonmusk I wrote a review of my Model S, and then asked you for a little favor here ​[link]." ​

To the delight of many Twitter users, Musk tweeted back: "@Oatmeal I would be happy to help."

Of course, we don't know if "help" means the full $8 million or much less.

Musk's Tesla Motors declined to say how much Musk would donate.

But for fans of Tesla's work and legacy, the possibility is electrifying.